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A boy's struggle for survival in a hidden society of witches.
You can't read, can't write, but you heal fast, even for a witch. You get sick if you stay indoors after dark. You hate White Witches but love Annalise, who is one. You've been kept in a cage since you were fourteen. All you've got to do is escape and find Mercury, the Black Witch who is known to eat boys. And do that before your seventeenth birthday. Easy.
I thought that this book has a very interesting and unique story line with an equally unique writing style that added a lot to the story. It switched between second person and first person and I have never read a novel written this way before, but I found that it was really effective for the story. There was brilliant character development and at times I found It hard to know what opinion I was in, in terms of the "politics" and story, because of the characters involved. I thought that this was a fantastic and intriguing touch. My one fault with Half Bad would be that it was a lot more slow-paced than I expected as the majority of the book was for the world building and set-up of the story for the rest of the series/trilogy (I can't remember which it is), which, although it will probably be necessary and makes sense for the next books, made it a slightly less exciting read.

There are white witches (good witches), black witches (evil witches), and those who are half white and half black. Once they reach the age of 17 they are given three gifts so that they may find out what their special talent is. Nathan is a half black half white witch living with his otherwise purely white witch family. When he turns fourteen he is taken away and stowed in a cage where he must do rigorous training only to find out that they want him to kill his father who is a black witch.

This book started out odd as it began it second person which I had never seen happen before, but it was a very good odd. The fact that he was describing his daily routine in the cage in second person made it feel like you truly were the one suffering through everything he was. It does swing back into first person after a few chapters, but Sally Green continues describing things the exact same so it still feels like you are the character. It's obvious from the beginning that Nathan has his own way of seeing things as he has his own way of observing things and describing them. He is also quite an interesting character as even he does not really know if he is actually good or bad and even though his man is a father who has killed many, he isn't sure if he himself would be able to kill his father. I recommend this book to anyone who likes fantasy, witchcraft books as it has this, but it does it in a more subtle and unique way.

To me, it felt a bit like a chore to read the first half or so; the time in the cage in particular made the book rather depressing to read.
But the story promises to get rather interesting and does keep that promise once he manages to get out. So the whole book was a good example of how rewarding a bit of endurance can be.
Also I agree with you, Nathan's way to describe the things he sees and experiences felt pretty nice!